Councillors urged to spare city’s vulnerable from effects of budget freeze
Housing and anti-poverty advocates plead with city to be cautious before imposing budget freeze on already threadbare services.

thestar.com
By EMILY MATHIEU
May 16, 2017

Housing and anti-poverty advocates made a public plea at City Hall Tuesday, calling on councillors to spare services for the most vulnerable from a proposed city-wide budget freeze.

“A freeze will make it harder for Torontonians to access social services and break the cycle of poverty,” Riley Peterson, with the Toronto Youth Cabinet, told the city’s executive committee. “People are not numbers on a financial statement that the city balances.”

The final decision on the direction to freeze the budget at 2017 spending levels will be made by city council at the end of the month.

Mayor John Tory said the direction doesn’t mean all budgets will actually end up frozen. It is “frustrating,” said Tory, that proposed budget measures are interpreted as a disregard for the vulnerable, rather than the early stage of a sensible and responsible planning process that will involve debate and is in fact guided by community input.

Councillor Gord Perks said choosing to impose a budget freeze on already threadbare core services, rather than raise property taxes, would mean the city would “literally be de-housing people.”

The proposed freeze was one of several housing items discussed during the meeting and that will go to council.

Mary Hynes, with the Older Women’s Network, backed a recommendation to collect more data on housing, particularly for seniors. “Health and housing are inextricably linked,” said Hynes, and data on how a lack of affordable housing results in more hospital stays should be part of future discussions with the provincial and federal governments.

Executive committee also passed a motion from Tory calling for a meeting with private rental providers - including owners and developers and other parties - to discuss the potential impact of recent changes to rent control rules made by the province.

Also passed, a motion by Councillor Ana Bailao that Toronto Community Housing Corp. prepare a separate budget detailing the cost of implementing forthcoming recommendations for TCHC buildings, expected to be presented at the June executive committee. If approved at city council, in July, staff would include that funding in 2018 budget submissions.

In May, council will also vote on a recommendation from city staff that the housing provider refinance the mortgages on 22 properties, with a plan to use an estimated $39 million in savings expected to be generated through lower interest rates towards capital repairs.

Despite that, TCHC is still on track to close 1,000 units by the end of next year unless $350 million is committed towards repairs. Tory has pressed the province for one third of the massive repair bill, but the Liberal government has yet to commit any new funds to shore up the crumbling housing stock.

During last week’s budget committee meeting, motions by Councillors Shelley Carroll and Mike Layton that would have exempted the city’s shelter, support and housing division from the freeze did not pass.

On Sunday, emergency shelters were at 96 per cent capacity. Men’s shelters were at 96 per cent, women’s at 99 per cent and youth shelters at 98. Family shelters, not counting motel beds, were full.

At the budget meeting, Patricia O’Connell, executive director of downtown drop-in Sistering, called a spending freeze “insane.”

Sistering receives $1.8 million each year from the city, but it isn’t enough to properly serve an increasing number of high-risk clients, she said. At Sistering, women sleep in chairs, or on the floor, and many use the drop-in as temporary housing.

“It is unconscionable that this is happening in the city,” she said. “There is no shelter. You have to do something about that.”